On May 29, 2014 I reviewed “The Science of Herself”, a collection of short stories and an abbreviated biography of the sometime science fiction and fantasy writer Karen Joy Fowler. In “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, a coming of age, historical novel, Ms. Fowler delves into the psychological consequences of a family raising a child and a baby chimpanzee as siblings. A The New York Times’ 100 notable books of 2012, this novel is a must read.

I previously reviewed two other psychological historical novels: “The Man Who Walked Away” (see February 13, 2015) and “A Tale for the Time Being” (September 3, 2014). The latter was written by Ruth Ozeki, who Ms. Fowler acknowledges for her support in writing this novel. Their unassuming writing styles belie the depth of their works. In Ms. Ozeki’s novel, suicide and cultural dysfunction are explored. Here the subject is more basic: what is it that makes us human and distinguishable from our primate relative? Fern and Rosemary are epigenetic sisters in childhood. Genetics, however, cannot be ignored. As Fern ages the difficulties or raising a chimpanzee outside her natural environment emerge.

Rosemary is the Monkey Girl. She knows she is different, but the differences are not always clear to her. Fern also does not fit in when resituated with other simians in lab cages. Ms. Fowler, through her characters, examines animal rights in the context of business and scientific research.

“The infliction of economic damage on those profiting from misery is a stated goal… This is why a number of states are considering laws that make the unauthorized photographing of what goes no in factory farms and slaughterhouses a felony. … It’s no coincidence that one of the Abu Ghraib torturers came to the military directly from a job as a chicken processor.”

The use of animals as pin cushions, food and pelts is not a diatribe. It is deftly handled within the context of the characters. Such “ag gag” laws have failed to be enacted in any state, although North Carolina had a Bill introduced in 2015.

“But no one would name a baby after Harry Harlow. He’d taken rhesus monkey infants away from their mothers and given them inanimate mothers instead, mothers alternatively of terry-cloth or wire, to see which, in the absence of other choices, the babies preferred. He claimed, deliberately provocative, to be studying love.

The baby monkeys clung pathetically to the fake, uncaring mothers, until they all turned psychotic or died. ‘I don’t know what he thought he’d learned about them,’ Lowell said. ‘But in their short, sad little lives, they sure learned a hell of a lot about him.'”

Human study of animals is a one-way mirror. The presumption of intelligence is anthropomorphic. How well do animals adapt to humans and the human environment? Fern learns to sign as a means of communication. Rosemary can understand some of the mannerisms of Fern, but she, nor any other human, can communicate in the language of any animal.

“‘Here’s the problem with Dad’s approach.’ …’Right in the fundamental assumptions. Dad was always saying that we were all animals, but when he dealt with Fern, he didn’t start from that place of congruence. His method put the whole burden of proof onto her. It was always her failure for not being able to talk to us, never ours for not being able to understand her. It would have been more scientifically rigorous to start with the assumption of similarity. It would have been a lot more Darwinian.'”

There have been studies that animals do not have the equivalent long-term (episodic) memory of humans. Primates apparently have short-term memory that is far superior to humans. Whether this is due to superior senses or different mental faculties is not clear (if the latter it might merit study in the treatment of Alzheimer’s and dementia). There is no way to know the strength or weakness of episodic memory in animals, although data has been persuasive that scrub jays have episodic memory. Temporal remembrance -when things happened- is a weakness in animals and most humans.

At some time in the not to distance future we will need to come to grips with what is human. Google has a patent that instills robots with human traits. Deep learning, neural networks, will create machines that are independent thinking and perhaps more advanced than human. Science fiction may be misnomer. The fiction may be our present beliefs about ourselves,

This novel is more subtle than this review might indicate. It is first a good story with good characters. It is not a rant. The characters deftly raise questions within the context of the storyline. The plain language makes the evolving story unexpected and more powerful. Ms. Fowler tells the story starting in the middle and works backwards and forwards. I was not sure how she was going to end the book, but like the rest of the novel it was done strongly.

David Mitchell’s new novel is a conglomeration of stories wrapped around a paranormal tale. It is admirable in the breadth and depth of research that went into writing a novel with an expanse in time and space.

Immortality versus reincarnation is the field of battle between the Anchorites, who feed on the souls of the living, and the Atemporals (or Horologists), who following death assume a new human body, but with retention of knowledge from their past lives. The principal character, Holly Sykes, unknowingly offers asylum to a Horologist that the Anchorites are trying to liquidate. Holly is the thread that binds the stories: runaway English teenager; waitress at a Swiss ski resort and love affair with a future Anchorite; to life partner with a childhood friend who is a renown war correspondent and father of their daughter; acclaimed author about paranormal; grandmother and guardian of her granddaughter in a post-apocalyptic world. The trip provides a tablet for Mr. Mitchell to express views about British publishing and literary awards; social class at Cambridge; and war in the Middle East. As the Horologists have lived in many countries and during many centuries there is a smattering of culture and history along the way.

The Anchorites are formally The Anchorites of the Chapel of the Dusk of the Blind Cathar of the Thomasite Order of Sidelhorn Pass. The is some misinformation about the Cathar’s preaching that the world was created by the devil and not God; that matter is evil; and that Jesus was only a man. The Cathars were heretics to the Catholic Church. They did believe that the physical world, including the human body, was created by Satan, but polytheism aside, were more aligned with the New Testament than the Old. They were spiritual descendants of Manicheans, who believed in a spiritual God and not God as creator. Interestingly there are 12 Anchorites, as there are 12 Apostles, including St. Thomas. The twelfth Anchorite, the only non-white Anchorite anda double agent, takes the role of Judas. The second Anchorite is named Immaculée Constantin. Anchorites keep their number to twelve and must source a decantable guest every 3 years. They are taken to the Chapel where the Black Cathar decants the visitors soul into the Black Wine. The 12 anchorites assemble at a ritual known as Rebirthday where they drink the Black Wine. It is all a bit too contrived for me.

The book is most readable prior to the fantastical war between the Anchorites and the Atemporals. It is super-hero, good versus evil. To me, rather boring. It does not get better when the story line becomes post-apocalyptic. If there was an element of science fiction it might be tolerable, but there is no science involved. The story is the result of lazy futuristic musings.

This novel will never be listed for the Booker Prize.

“Last year Sir Roger shocked the arts world by purchasing U.K.’s foremost literary prize, renaming it after himself and trebling the pot to L150,000. Bloggers suggest that his acquisition was prompted by his latest wife, Suze Brittan, whose CV includes a stint as a soup star, face of TV’s book show, The Unputdownables, and now chairperson of the Brittan Prize’s panel of uncorruptible judges. … “I hear what you are saying about Slaughterhouse Five, Lord Brittan.” Nick Greek possesses American self-assurance, Byronic good looks, and I already detest him. “But if I were forced at gunpoint to pick the twentieth-century was novel, I opt for Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. It’s-“

“I knew you’d say that!” Suze Brittan performs a little victory jig. “I adore it. The only war novel to really ‘get’ trench warfare from the German point of view.”